Millrats Hold Court at the Club
07/16/2009 10:59 AM
Basketball players host island camp

By Allison Goldsmith (reprinted of Inquirer & Mirror Article 07/16/09)
I&M Sports Editor

Aspiring basketball play­ers at the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club received professional-level instruction this week as four
players and a coach from the Manchester Millrats conducted a week-long camp at the Sparks Avenue club.

Jason Briggs, principal owner of the Manchester (N.H.) Millrats minor-league basket­ball team, has been tossing around
the idea of holding an island camp for the last year. With all the details finally worked out, and the right play­ers signed
up to participate, Briggs went ahead with the camp this week.

"I felt it was a unique oppor­tunity to learn from players who have played professionally for a very long time - one of
whom was in the NBA - and also to learn from a seven-foot­er and a 6'11" player, rather than just some coach who
hasn't picked up a ball in 30 years. It is an opportunity to learn from players who have guarded Shaquille O'Neal and
played against Kobe Bryant and have also played profes­sionally in Europe for a long time," he said.

Briggs picked up the tab for getting the players to the camp, subsequently donating all pro­ceeds from the tuition to the
Boys & Girls Club.

"It just feels like a good fit to try to raise some money for them," Briggs said.

Thirty-five players ages 9 to 14 from on- and off-island partic­ipated in the camp this week. The Boys & Girls Club
basket­ball camp, which has previously been run by former Boston Celtics coach K.C. Jones as well as various college
coaches over the last few years, is popular among young island players.

The addition of current pro­fessional players this summer made it that much more appeal­ing.

Among the players leading the camp are former Portland Trailblazers forward Desmond Ferguson; 2001 starting center
for the University of Connecti­cut, Souleymane Wane; Man­chester Millrats starting point guard Al Stewart; seven-foot
Tuskegee University alum and Premier Basketball League leader in blocked shots Kenyon Gamble; and Millrats
assistant coach Rich Thomas.

After playing its inaugural season in the American Basket­ball Association in 2007-2008, the Manchester Millrats moved
to the more stable and competi­tive Premiere Basketball League this season. The Millrats were the Atlantic Division
regular­season champions with 16­4 record, but lost in the semifinal round of the PBL playoffs in mid-April to the
Rochester RazorSharks in a best of three series.

Players for the minor-league organization are at various stages in their professional careers, but all are playing
bas­ketball at a high level.

"You can have people tell you and teach you stuff, but if they haven't experienced it or been through it, it's kind of tough
for the kids to relate. I was once a kid just like them, going to camps learning, seeing different NBA guys or professionals
teach me the game. It's a level of respect knowing you have been there already and they kind of try to emulate some of
the things that you do," Ferguson said.

After graduating from the University of Detroit in 2000, Ferguson, who was given the nickname "Moneyball" by his high
school AAU teammate and current Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett, played in seven games with the Trailblazers in
2004.

"It was a lifetime dream and goal and it was a great experi­ence and probably one of the best moments of my life,"
Fergu­son said.

His professional career has also taken him across the world to Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Venezuela, the Dominican
Republic and Puerto Rico.

"I get a chance to experience a different way of life, different cultures and get to do what I love and experience different
countries," he said. "My main thing is to work hard. You have got to work hard. You can have the talent, but if you don't
work hard . . . And that goes for any­thing in life. If you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, an athlete or a musician, you have
to put those hours in and really work."

All of the players involved in the camp have run or helped out at youth camps at some point in their basketball careers.
The focus of the Nantucket camp is mainly on fundamentals and perfecting the small details of the game.

"We do drills in the morning to get the legs loose, get the arms loose, to stretch and every­thing.

By the end of the day, they can put it all together and play on a basketball court up and down. They think the drills are
the hard part, so we get that out of the way, so they can be good by the evening," Stewart said.

Even after only the first day, the young players had already seen the benefits.

"I have learned how to rebound better, dribble better, shoot better and I am more con­sistent in foul shots," said
Court­ney Blair, 14, a guard/shooting forward at St. Peter-Marian in Worcester, Mass. "I think this is good because it
works on the fundamentals more. In most basketball camps they just assume we know it already."

"They really break it down and help you with each and every thing, all the fundamen­tals. I have really gotten stronger
with shooting already," said Jackie Lowell, 14, a point guard at White Mountains Regional High School in New Hampshire.

"It's fun. It's tiring, but it's good exercise," said Zayda Wil­son, 11. "They are professionals and they probably know a lot
more than some of the people here, so it is a good experience."

The importance of getting tips from professional-level basket­ball players is not lost on the players themselves.

Wane grew up in Senegal and did not start playing basketball until he was 17 years old.

"I didn't play basketball when I was a kid, so now seeing how much help I could have gotten if I had met someone like a
profes­sional basketball player early in my years, it probably would have helped me become a better player," said
Wane, who since graduating from UConn has played in Japan, Poland and Germany over the last decade before joining
the Millrats.

"It's a great group. They are very attentive, they have a lot of energy and they are working hard and they are playing
hard. The only thing we ask is for kids to come and work hard and try to listen and they are doing a great job," said the
towering seven-foot Gamble, who has held camps in his hometown of Chicago. "It is just the satisfac­tion when you see
the glare in their eyes when they see you walk in the gym and they are so attentive and they are so ready to learn, so
they can hopefully play professional basketball one day too and use the skills from basketball to do better things in their
life."

"I run a couple clinics back home (in Michigan). It's always good dealing with the youth and being able to teach them
some of the basic principles about the game of basketball," Ferguson said. "The kids are great. They have fun. They
just want to get out there and run up and down. We try to waste some of that energy that they got. Maybe they can go
home and get some rest so their parents don't have to worry about them running around all evening."

"I think it's fun because they improve your skills and they help you do stuff and make it fun," said Nantucket Boys & Girls
Club member Quinn Towne, 10.

"I am trying to make a dream come true. I want to get into the NBA someday and I have to go to basketball camps to
improve my game," said Justin Halford, 12, who is working to improve his ball-handling, rebounding and shooting this
week.

"When there is somebody who plays professional, you know they are making money, you know they are on TV and all
that, you pay a lot more atten­tion and you respect everything they say a whole lot more because something they are
doing right must be working," Gamble said.

"I have been taught as well. Growing up, I went to camps. You are trying to listen and learn and as the years go by
progress has been made," Stew­art said.